nig·gard·ly

2. meanly or ungenerously small or scanty: a niggardly tip to a waiter.

-dictionary.com

Racism is alive and well in America. But it’s not your father’s racism. It’s yours. It manifests differently. Just as overt. Just as insidious. Just as evil and just as frustratingly ignorant.

The scourge of contemporary racism seems to be that we elected a black president and therefore it’s over. As in, wow, the Kenyan without a birth certificate got elected what more do you want? So now we are somehow post racial. Um, okay…. Hate groups on the rise, particularly in the south. Protesters waiving the confederate flag in front of the president’s house. Brandishing signage with hilariously tragic spelling depicting him as a witch doctor, a bone through his nose, he and his wife as primates. Terrible Ted Nugent says in public: “I have obviously failed to galvanize and prod, if not shame enough Americans to be ever vigilant not to let a Chicago communist-raised, communist-educated, communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel like the ACORN community organizer gangster Barack Hussein Obama to weasel his way into the top office of authority in the United States of America.”

We are so post racial.

I thought Bill Clinton was the first black president.

Here’s a bitter truth: Not all republicans are racist but like it or not, most racists are republicans.

A colleague said to me the other day, “why can’t they just get over it?” Because we have a bi-racial president? Why can’t they just get over it? Somehow in light of that, “they” should just forget hundreds of years of slavery, rape, cruelty, abuse, degradation, discrimination, segregation, exclusion, bias, torture, murder, persecution, exploitation and egregious debasement. Why is it they just can’t get over being pissed upon and shat upon, imprisoned and disenfranchised? All made possible with actual legislation. Unconscionable legal charter and statute enacted and enforced by the white ruling class. Why can’t they just wake up tomorrow and say they’re cool with white people? Why do they have to act that way? Why don’t they just surrender their identity and blend in?

Because we have an optically darker commander in chief, we should put this all behind us. Because slavery ended over a hundred years ago.

The new racism is pretending it’s not there. The new racism is people who do not know they are racist.

Or those who lack self awareness so completely.

Still, they go after it hard. All of it. Anybody not resembling the pasty white, smug, shit eating smirker they see in the mirror during the morning constitutional and shave. Women’s health =”feminazis”. Immigration =”wetbacks”. Voting rights =”niggers”. Saber rattling =”rag heads”. They do this because they got their asses handed to them twice by a black president despite their best and most mendacious efforts. They hate it. They are threatened. They are afraid and they know these are the issues that will rile up the base, the womenfolk and the kids. They know these issues are toxic. These are issues they gerrymandered, issues they manipulated, issues they fucked with in one way or another over and over.

But still, issues they can’t defend or reconcile under the antiseptic light of day. And when the lamp clicks on at night, they scatter or obfuscate like amateur street performers caught cheating rubes and slobs and fools.

These are issues that will guarantee their demise but they can’t help themselves. Because they hate and fear. Because that’s what they are fed. By the media and institutional indoctrination. By fucking religion. Dogma. Jesus was white. Santa is white. They are beginning to understand that they are actively courting extinction. They see the inevitability of being caught in the trap they set.

There are no more racists in the world than there were before 2008 but they have boiled to the top. They are furious and and desperate now.

I know them.

You know them.

We all do.

You all are pretty easy to spot.

You talk, you say it out loud, you give the examples of Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Muhammed Ali, etc. and you say, if these blacks could rise to the top then why can’t the rest of them? Like they can’t because the rest of them are stupid, incapable somehow despite the inequity of advantage afforded them. You say this like you believe they are not an exception even though it’s obvious you believe they are. You say this with a straight face and it makes me furious because you will never know the obstacles they encounter everyday, much less what the average person of color is up against relative to your own experience. You will never know and you pretend we’re all treated equally when you fucking know we’re not. When you open your mouth to say this shit, I hate you for it. Not because you don’t understand, but because you don’t even try.

You have friends who go to great lengths to explain you to each other. People who hope you mean well but lament your lack of understanding. People who are embarrassed by you but apologize to each other because of you. All these people are in your life and smile at you every day. They want to like you, but they can’t. They still offer you a friendly face and do their best to be civil to you. But they hate the the things you say and do because it’s so painful to them that you refuse to understand because you don’t care enough to try. They wish they could make you see them, and not merely what you think is their plight, what you think is their ascription to victimization. Most of them have given up on ever hoping you can. Some of them even try to love you, to excuse you, because you see yourself as a real American and somehow a defender of liberty and the pursuit of happiness or what the fuck ever. They bend over backwards to give you the benefit of the doubt. They want to believe that you at least mean well. They hope you’re noble in some way but they can’t stand the things that come out of your mouth, and they try really hard to afford you some yardage because they hope you’re sincere in some way that you never demonstrate. You always let them down. You always disappoint. Always. They hope you are not what they see, but they see you nonetheless. They hope the generosity and compassion you exhibit otherwise means you’re not that big of an asshole.

They are wrong. You are a fucking bigot. A racist. I pity you for it and so should they.

You are the new racist.

Same as the old one.

Because you hate yourself. Because you’re so afraid of everyone else because you know they are the same as you. Because you imagine you have the advantage and you cling with such fierce and angry desperation to the idea that you are somehow privileged. Because you believe you are somehow entitled. You’re not. We see that. We try not to hate you for it. But it’s one hell of a stretch. Goddamn you make it hard.

What we do hate, without reservation, is that you refuse to accept that we are all the same. What we hate is that you know that if all people, regardless of race, creed or color, were afforded equal opportunity and evaluation, you know you would be forced to confront that truth. What we really hate, is that you frantically engage in every possible activity to undermine that truth. What we hate is that you hate yourself so much that you do it all so willingly, so ignorantly, so shamelessly, so blindly.

We hate that despite you knowing the truth, you still behave as though you don’t.

36 Responses to “But, some of my best friends are fill in the blank”

“You talk, you say it out loud, you give the examples of Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Muhammed Ali, etc…”

Never realizing or refusing to realize that the very fact that you CAN point to examples means that we still have a good long way to go. That the fact that there are STILL, to this day, “First black/Hispanic/female/etc American (fill in the blank)” means we haven’t reached post-anyfuckingthing.

I was agreeing with you and what you wrote – completely, Lol! I meant ‘you’ as in everyone who seems to believe we’re now in some post-racial utopia. Everything you wrote is on point. Keep up the good work. Hopefully not everyone is happy wallowing in their own ignorance and maybe, eventually, you’ll get through to someone out there.

C’mon. Come out and play. Bring it. You’re who I want. You’re who I’m talking about. This blog is YOU. This is what your friends say about you. This is what they think about you. Share with us. Show yourself.

I had so much hope for our first black President because every minority in this country knows he has insight into our everyday struggle, and yet I can’t help but suspect that he can’t really get anything done because even though he’s the most powerful man on the planet (in theory), he’s still a black man in America who has to work with a majority of country club white men who, left to their own devices, would never allow him membership.

How can you tell that the President is Communist, if his Vice President, etc., says will help with billion to a Government, where there are fascists and nazis, who have made a violent coup in Ukraine, overthrowing the democratically elected Government?
Fans have a problem: their ignorance, their cretinism. And that’s what makes them doubly dangerous. So one should not do not fall into that same attitude and error. And I think the President, as a black man who is, in that is a skilled specialist.

You hit head-on about how republicans overlook, are just plain ignorant, that blacks had to endure slavery for hundreds of years. I don’t know if you believe in the bible (I don’t), but the bible says slavery is ok, in fact encouraged. I don’t know if that is why republicans (most of them are christians), use that philosophy for modern, present-day times. They are out-of-date. The fact that they expect blacks to “get over it..that was a long time ago..it doesn’t exist anymore.” Racism does exist. They apparently don’t know anyone black, or another race that has been through it. They bring up, that we, democrats are “race-baiters”,or that we “keep bringing up the race card”. I always tell them, that no one can “bait” anyone into saying what they want to say. To me, it’s a cop out. They say, “I know some blacks, so I’m not racists”. My ass, they do. If they did, they’d have compassion for the plight of the african-americans history, and continuing discrimination that they face.
I have to say, where I was raised (not born, was totally white). Very rarely did a black person enter that town, and they didn’t stay long, (probably, because they noticed the prejudice, and felt uncomfortable). It also is primarily republican, which strikes me as funny, because it is mostly a poor town. Now, there are blacks in that town, but the ratio of blacks to white is quite low (for blacks). My dad is racist, but he doesn’t voice it as much as when I was a kid. He’d tell jokes about blacks. My mom raised use strikingly different. She raised us to embrace diversity, and so I felt comfortable w/ every race as a child, and growing up. We’d go to Milwaukee, to visit my aunt and uncle, and that city has a very high black population. I always felt out of place where I was raised. I knew at a very young age, that I belonged in a multi-cultural city, with much diversity. So, my friends (who aren’t all racist), live in the small town in Michigan, where I lived as a kid.

I had a very good friend who said that one of the greatest disservices we do to one another is label others. While you apply written sermon through your blog onto others, you fail to see that you are as guilty of prejudice as those who you condemn. I see it through all of your posts, about how evil and wrong the “Republicans” or “Tea Party”, or “Conservatives” are. You label them no different than some of their members label “liberals” or different nationalities. By such labeling people show their bias, hence their prejudice against all of those who bear such labels. That dear Mike, is hypocrisy.

The word Racism first appears in the writings of Trotsky, who’s role of promoting communism was profound. He was a genius but an evil one at that. He knew that by labeling others one can promote increased hatred and create a stronger unified government.

Our federal government has done the same. While saying they would promote a sense of unity, their acts speak much differently as we as a nation are much more divided now. Our government makes more of gay rights and racism than they do of the pressing matters such as our floundering economy (hidden by the Fed pump and a manipulated stock market). But what can we expect from a president who’s campaign lies with the premise that if you disagree with his agenda, you must be a racist. The majority of persons who disagree with his agenda and actions care nothing of his race, but rather his Saul Alinsky inspired machinations.

This president has no insight into the proposed unequal treatment of a race other than white. He has lived a privileged life since day one, attending private schools, and later an Ivy league college, having never worked a non-public sector job. He surrounds himself with corrupt politicians and the .1%’ers who make the laws that we are being bound by. Our freedoms are being swept away for the sake of security.

And yet, the democrats will pray for a 2016 Hillary (another Alinsky inspired politician) and the republicans will prop up some bank owned puppet of their own, and our country will elect yet another tool of enslavement. It is so true that a government large enough to give you all that you want is large enough to control all that you need.

Dear readers, a little background on the commenter. David is a guy that grew up in my home town. We attended the same high school. He was a year ahead of me. My memory of him is one of a decent, relatively quiet guy.

Somehow, in the interim, David has become a fully fledged, thoroughly indoctrinated by FOX news, right wing “takers vs. makers”, asshole. He’s far more afraid of feeding the hungry than he is of the tax money he pays to the wealthiest corporations in history. When I went after him on his facebook page, he blocked me. Couldn’t take it. In way over his head. So he shows up here.

David, let me start by saying, with as little respect due as possible, fuck you in the neck.

Here’s what you don’t get. This blog is about racism and how it manifests in discrimination against people for reasons that they are BORN with, such as the color of their skin. NOT stupid choices they made like becoming members of the tea party, or the Republican party or merely backward ass idiot conservatives.

Proof positive of your moral and intellectual bankruptcy.

Goddamn I can’t believe you failed to grasp even that.

Idiot.

The word, the concept of racism reared it ugly head thousands of years before Trotsky you moron.

Our federal government makes more of gay rights and racism than they do of pressing issues like a floundering economy? The Republican party, the conservatives and most specifically the goddamn tea party have prevented progress on our economy by not even allowing a single jobs/infrastructure bill to come up for a vote. Not one. No attempt to make things better for anyone. Instead, every possible venue for preventing prosperity of any kind because it might be seen as a success for a black president has been explored and exhaustively utilized. A Kenyan, socialist, Muslim president.

Meanwhile, it’s the individual states that advance the issues you whine so pathetically about. You know, gay rights and racism. The states you goofecock. Not the federal government. I went to the same school you did David. I know they taught civics. I was there. Where were you?

Our current president struggled. No real father, a mother poor enough to not be able to avail herself of adequate insurance coverage to battle her cancer. She died young. Largely raised by white grandparents. NO MONEY. The least privileged president to hold office in our lifetimes David, you ignorant fucking jerk. The fact that he got as far as he did, given his circumstances, is a testament to his intelligence, fortitude and determination. And he got elected by two of the widest margins in modern American history. With the middle name “Hussein”. Twice, you dumb ass.

He has an extensive history of employment in the private sector David, as a constitutional law professor for example.

And what freedoms are being swept away David? What freedoms? Are you referring to the patriot act enacted under Bush? NSA activity enacted under Bush? Or are you referring to women’s health rights being restricted by state Republican legislators and governors? Or maybe voting rights for minorities and women being restricted by Republican state legislators and governors?

I’m not even going to address the scholarship of Saul Alinsky with you because you consistently demonstrate a severe lack of acuity when it comes to economics and policy.

Lastly, I’m not thrilled with Hillary but she’s the best we’ve got and she’s electable. Unlike the GOP clown car. Not one credible, sane, reasonable candidate. Not one candidate who hasn’t publicly and embarrassingly stepped on their dick disagreeing with policies that will actually help the middle class or distancing themselves for positions they’ve staked out with serious conviction in their recent history.

You’re a lazy imbecile David. As usual, you’re in way over your head. You come here and parrot FOX news talking points thinking you’re informed and clever. You’re not. You sound just as dumb and shrill as the rest of them. I am sad for you. I feel sorry for you. You’re so egregiously clueless you didn’t realize how much you’d be exposing yourself here.

I know I will never change your mind or your thinking. What I sincerely hope is that I will somehow play a role in you stopping and thinking before you open your woefully uninformed mouth in the future.

Wow, you sound full of hate! Much more so than any conservative I know. Question for you. Can you please tell me how one disagrees with Obama without being labeled and called racist? How ones disagrees with his policies without being labeled racist? I would love to finally have that question answered.

Howdy all,Well as I am Australian I don’t know enough about it to way in on the America fouednd on christian values discussion. However I can (and will) give my thoughts on the Statue from my perspective.Should said church be allowed to build this statue:I believe the answer to this question is yes. If they have a compelling need to build a statue like this (as silly as it may seem to the rest of us) then they should go ahead and do it. The rest of of will laugh quietly at their conceit. However if they are allowed to erect and display such a large and somewhat profane (in my opinion) image of the statue of liberty, they should allow someone to erect a statue of Jesus bowing before Mohummad (if someone so desired) without complaint. I doubt they would allow something like that to happen without jumping up and down and calling it a gross insult to their beliefs. So those of you who support this statue I hope that gives you some idea as to how the statue comes accross to us that do not share your beliefs. Those of us that see the statue of liberty as a symbol of freedom and justice. We don’t see christiany as a symbol of freedom and justice and given the atics of the christian movements trying to muscle in and bring in legislation that would force people to follow their beliefs, alot of us view it as completely the opposite. So for a christian church to use such a symbol for their own agenda is slightly insulting to us. And we view the whole idea, particullay at that price as a collosal conceit and waste of time and money.CheersSimon

Yes, and the other day whilst on a very long drive I had no choice but to listen to the Walter & Johnson radio show. They were talking about Obama and said he “hates white people.” So stupid. He was RAISED by white people. His mother and her parents were white and they raised him to be the man he is.

So it’s not only Fox News. The blatant freedom to express yourself against our (half) black POTUS is syndicated in many formats and platforms.